Bear In The City
by KaraTheFangirl
Summary: [ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE] After an unsuccessful encounter with the Kraang, the turtles meet and bring in a new member to their family. Follows Bear's new life with the turtles throughout the course of the show and the adventures they go on. Begins somewhere in the middle of Season 1 of the 2012 show.
1. Bear In The City

The tranquil New York City night air was shattered. Not because of a fairly recent previous encounter with the Kraang, but the ensuing family feud.

"IF WE'D DONE IT MY WAY, THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!"

Raphael and Leonardo were fighting. Again. Donatello rolled his eyes and, taking Michaelangelo by the back of his shell, backed away from the two older brothers as they got in each others' faces.

"Your way would've ruined the ambush! We had them, but then you had to go and make a big fuss just because we didn't do it your way! Like a child!"

Donnie and Mikey's eyes bugged and they turned to Raph, who'd begun to shake with rage at Leo's words.

"Y-you…..you little AAAAAAGGHH!"

Raph took out his sais and pounced at Leo, who was ready for this and countered the attack with his twin katana with a look on his face that wasn't all that surprised and more angry. Donnie and Mikey, meanwhile, jumped when their brothers' weapons entered the argument.

"Guys, that's enough!"

Metal clashed against metal. His baby brother clinging to his arm with wide, stunned eyes, Donnie felt a surge of adrenaline, from both fear and anger. Master Splinter wasn't there to split this up, and if this escalated any further, someone could get hurt. He had to step in.

"I said that's ENOUGH!"

With a swing of his bo staff, a move neither older brother anticipated, Donnie knocked Leo's katanas to the ground and sent Raph's sais flying. One sai clattered to the alley floor harmlessly, the other was sent flying to a trashcan that sat across the alley. The sai landed in the trashcan with a loud clang, and from the depths of the trashcan came a sharp animal scream.

The four brothers froze, fight now put to an end. Not taking his eyes off the trashcan, Leo picked up his katanas and sheathed them silently. Raph retrieved his one sai and slowly approached the trashcan to get the other. All the boys sat on a hair trigger, ready to go ninja on any poor soul who snuck up on them. Leaning over the trashcan, Raph peeked inside.

Indeed, his sai lay at the bottom of the trashcan, but across from the weapon, huddled snuggly in the bottom corner of the container, was a fluffy furred, dark brown puppy. The pup was trembling, dark brown eyes behind a dark, almost black furred face stared up at Raph with unspoken terror, tail between his hind legs and floppy ears almost buried in the fluffy pelt. And on the pup's head was a smear of red that matted the fur.

Raph couldn't say anything, stunned, and a twinge of guilt hit him. Had his sai hit the pup?

He reached in to grab the sai, the guilt worsening as the puppy squeezed himself into the trashcan wall away from him, shaking hard enough to rattle the can and turning his head away, refusing to look the turtle in the eye.

"Raph?"

"What's in there, dude?"

Raph didn't answer his brothers, checking his sai. No blood, but that didn't mean anything. The pup was still hurt, and he'd never heard any animal scream like that.

It had to have been his sai. And that meant it had to have been his fault.

Putting the sai away like the other, Raph leaned back into the trashcan, getting his three fingered hand under the pup who immediately began screaming in terror.

"No no no, it's okay little guy! It's okay!" Raph tried to comfort the terrified puppy as he lifted it out of the trashcan. Now his brothers could see what made the racket, and Mikey awed and squealed over the puppy.

Said pup squirmed and wiggled in Raph's hands, still screaming like he was being skinned alive. Raph tried to hold him closer, to try and calm him down, but the pup's legs stuck out stiffly, trembling and screaming pitifully. Donnie approached, seeing the blood on the puppy's head, and the pup gave one last whimper before burying his face in the crook of Raph's arm and going silent, still shaking.

The brothers said nothing. Mikey teared up over the puppy, Donnie was concerned, Raph guilt ridden, and Leo couldn't help but stare at the puppy in shock.

"…How'd he get in there?" Leo finally spoke softly, approaching to get a closer look at the pup. Donnie shook his head in disappointed shock before saying the one thing that each brother suspected but neither dare say until that point.

"Someone must've dumped him there. He's too small to have gotten in there himself."

Raph gently ran a hand down the pup's trembling back, the muscles stiffening under the brown fur with fear. "We gotta get him back to the lair."

 **{*}**

The four brothers piled into Donnie's lab silently, and Raph gently moved to put the puppy on the table as Donnie went to check the bloody wound on the his head. The pup squirmed and began yelping once more as Raph held him by the body and Donnie held his head still to check the wound.

"Well, he's had this for a while, since before we found him. Most of the blood's dry, probably a few hours old."

"S-so the sai didn't hit him on the head?"

Donnie looked up at his second oldest brother, at first surprised at the question but then understood. It was no secret that Raph was a sucker for little animals, his love for Spike proved that. And the relief in his brother's voice was too strong to miss.

"No Raph, the sai didn't do this." Donnie comforted, and his brother relaxed immensely. "In fact, the wound doesn't seem too bad. It should heal up in no time, with the proper care. I'm just gonna put something on it to help it heal and wrap it up so he doesn't scratch at it."

All the while, the puppy continued to cry. Mikey wanted to pet him so badly, but every time he approached, the pup would cry louder and start squirming. The youngest brother's baby blue eyes welled up with tears. "Poor little guy! What happened to him?"

The more Donnie looked at the wound as he bandaged it, the more furious he couldn't help but feel. "It looks like someone… _kicked_ him…" and under his breath, he muttered, "Who'd do that to a puppy?"

Raph shifted a bit. "Whoever did this might've also kicked him in the ribs. He keeps flinching funny when I touch him on his side here." He gestured to Donnie the puppy's left side, and as the taller turtle gently prodded the area for broken bones, the puppy shrieked and squirmed, almost falling off the table out of Raph's arms until Leo caught him and gently placed him back on the table and helped Raph hold him still as Donnie tried to feel the pup's ribs through his thick fur.

"What's this?"

The brothers jumped and turned to the door. "Sensei!" Master Splinter approached and looked at the puppy, perplexed. Every brother scrambled to explain.

"H-he was in a trashcan, Master Splinter!"

"Donnie thinks someone kicked him."

"His ribs might be bruised."

"CAN WE KEEP HIM?!"

The three older brothers looked at Mikey, eyes wide but then hopeful as they turned back to their sensei. Splinter watched as the pup trembled between Raph and Leo's hands.

Raph spoke up, repeating his earlier statement now that he wasn't being talked over by his brothers. "He was in a trashcan. Someone hurt him. You'd think that if they didn't want him, that the animal shelter would take him. But what if….no one wants him?"

Splinter spoke gently. "Some people are cruel for the sake of being cruel. I doubt he was even taken to the shelter in the first place." The four brothers went quiet, but the silent plea still hung in the air.

 _Can we keep him?_

The rat master sighed, running a hand down his beard. "A puppy would be more work than Spike. Are the four of you sure you're ready for this responsibility, between your training, the Kraang, and the Foot Clan?"

The four looked at each other, then at the puppy, then back to their sensei. Each gave an affirmative nod. Splinter smiled. "Very well. You may keep him."

"BOOYA-!"

Mikey froze as the pup flinched with a terrified squeak, and finished his celebratory holler in a gentle whisper yell. "-Kasha!"

 **{*}**

The boys had taken to sitting in front of their TV, an episode of Space Heroes playing while Donnie held the puppy, removing and replacing a ice pack on the pup's side every few minutes to ease the bruising. The pup seemed to have accept that they weren't going to hurt him at the moment and the ice pack certainly helped the pain in his ribs, but the fear still stayed and was obvious each time one of them got up for something, earning a swift, terrified glance from the pup each time.

The show ended, and the turtles quietly sat around, watching the puppy. Mikey was smiling so wide his face almost hurt.

"Hey guys! Since we get to keep him, he needs a name! And Dr. Name-enstein knows exactly what to call him!"

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Raph quipped, slowly reaching to the puppy and gently petting his back, the big brown eyes watching his every move nervously.

"Well, he looks like a little bear, so how about Teddy Bear?! We can call him Bear for short!"

The other brothers looked at each other, stunned. "That's….actually a good name!" Leo said, impressed. Mikey smiled and leaned back with his hands behind his head, cool as a cucumber. "I know."

"Yeah, it suits him!"

"I like it!"

The brothers looked to the puppy, Raph putting his nose up to the pup's nose and gently scratching him under the chin. "What'dya think, lil buddy?"

The puppy sniffed him, then gave him a cautious lick on the nose.

Teddy Bear was now part of the family.

 **{*}**

 **Hey guys! Thanks for reading! :)**

 **This** **wa** **s intended to be a one-shot** **at first** **, but I'm also going to be adding more to this, since this first chapter takes place in the middle of Season 1.**

 **I'm not going to be covering every single episode, but I will be doing my favorites and episodes that include major plots and whatnot.**

 **Please do leave a review and tell me what you think! :D**

 **TMNT 2012 © Nickelodeon**

 **Bear, story/idea © KaraTheFangirl**


	2. Bear Meets April

**Thanks for the patience, guys! I've been taking an online school course and between that and writer's block, I just haven't been able to post anything.**

 **Hope you guys enjoy this new chapter!**

 **{*}**

"That's it! Come on, just a little further!"

Raph gently encouraged the puppy as he coaxed him out from his hiding place under Mikey's bed. His innocent younger brother had taken Bear from Donnie's lab and tried to play with him, but the still nervous pup had hidden from the playful, hyper turtle at the first chance he got.

Bear slowly crept forward and out from under the bed, the whites of his eyes showing as he looked around nervously, one tentative step after another as he inched towards Raph. Finally, he was close enough that Raph was able to gently reach over and pick him up and, while he stiffened at the contact, Bear did not scream.

"I just wanted to play with him…" Mikey whimpered guiltily. He expected his big brother to be angry at him, but instead Raph quietly turned to him and nodded. "I know, but he's only been with us for a week. He's still nervous, so you gotta be slow and gentle with him. Think you can do that just until he's used to us?" Mikey nodded, and Raph gently gave Bear over to his younger brother.

Mikey gently pet the pup's thick brown fur, being careful not to touch Bear's bandaged head. "Sorry for scaring you, little dude." he spoke softly. His apology was cautiously accepted with a cold nose tucking into the crook of his arm as the two brothers left the bedroom. They were about to enter their brother's lab when they discovered, a bit too late to react, that April had come over.

"Hey guys!"

Bear flipped out, his oversized puppy paws scratching Mikey's plastron with stiff legs as he struggled to escape and run, ultimately landing himself partly on the turtle's shoulder and partly on the top back part of his shell as Mikey made a careful yet hysterical run to Donnie's lab with a scream of "DONNIECATCHHIMFAST" as the pup's claws could be heard making panicky scratching noises against his shell, no doubt beginning to slip.

Leo had stepped out of the dojo just in time to see the spectacle of equal puppy-turtle panic and turned to their visitor. "Hey April! You're early today."

"You could say school finished early. Some idiot pulled one of the fire alarms. Some sort of weird prank… Was that a puppy?" The red head gestured to where Mikey had made his mad dash into Donnie's lab. Raph walked over to where Spike was lazily munching on a leaf, petting the pet turtle's shell. "Yeah. We found him about a week ago and Splinter's letting us keep him."

"And his name's Teddy Bear, Bear for short." Leo interjected. April smiled and awwed. "Can I meet him?" Raph pretended to think about it. "Well, he's pretty nervous. Think you can manage no sudden moves or loud noises?"

"Okay, okay." April laughed, "Come on, I wanna see him!" The two turtles led her into the lab, where Donnie immediately became flustered upon April's entrance. "A-April! Hi!"

Another presence in the room was also immediately aware of April. Tucked away in a safe little corner of Donnie's lab, Bear sat in a large box that held a warm blanket and bowls of food and water. The box was only temporary, to prevent him from getting spooked and running off into the sewers. The puppy sat up on his hind paws, just barely managing to peek out of his little safe haven at the newcomer.

A female human. Humans were evil as far as Bear knew, and their very scent made him anxious.

The turtle with the purple mask gestured for the human to follow him, and he led her towards the box. Betrayal! The pup scrambled over and squirmed his way under the blanket, unaware his little brown tail still stuck out. Somehow, his genius hiding tactic was foiled, and a large green, three-fingered hand gently removed the blanket and picked him up.

Bear immediately began to shake and whimper as he was picked up.

"Aww, you poor thing!" April reached forward, gently cupping the puppy's face as she noticed the bandage. "What happened to him?"

Donnie explained how they'd found Bear, and how they suspected he received his wounds. April could only shake her head in disbelief. "Any idea why someone would hurt him, then dump him?" Raph couldn't help but ask. April gave the red masked turtle a sad look. "Some people…are just mean for the sake of being mean. They don't think they need a reason to take it out on an innocent animal. They just…do."

Bear had stopped whimpering, but still quivered in Donnie's gentle grip as April stroked his thick, fluffy brown fur. April laughed gently, at which Donnie couldn't help but blush furiously at how sweet she sounded. "Oh my gosh, his paws to so big compared to the rest of him! He's gonna be huge when he grows up."

Mikey popped up over his flustered brother's shoulder, making Bear jump. "You know what kind of dog he is?!" April shook her head, but Donnie jumped in. "Actually, I've been looking online at different dog breeds that, in description, grow to be large, have brown double-coat fur, with floppy ears an-"

"UUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"

"Donnie. Seriously. Just tell us what he is."

Donnie deadpanned at Mikey's over-exaggerated groan and Raph's annoyed statement, shortening his answer. "Bear's a breed known as the Leonberger."

"Coooool!" Mikey awwed, then stopped. "I don't know what that is."

Donnie rolled his eyes, but gently placed Bear back in his box and went to his computer where, to Mikey's utter joy, he pulled up pictures of the breed Bear supposedly was. Raph joined them.

"DUUUUUDES! They actually look like bears! Look at that one on it's back feet! It actually looks like a bear!" Mikey giggled.

Raph snorted a laugh. "Well, you're not wrong."

April laughed. "Hard to believe, with how tiny he is right now." She slowly reached into the box towards Bear, letting the nervous pup sniff her just before he went and hid under the blanket again. "You've got a long way to grow, lil' guy."

 **{*}**

 _Early the next morning…_

Bear was restless. The human girl knew the location of his safe haven. He had to find a new bed! These large, green, shelled creatures who'd taken him in seemed nice enough, but he couldn't be certain that they wouldn't show her his new hiding spot. The pup jumped, squirming over the cardboard wall in classic clumsy puppy fashion until he tumbled on out. Once on his paws, the pup slunk along the lab wall, eyeing the green creature with the purple face warily. It appeared to be sleeping….sitting up? The puppy didn't question anything, and proceeded to quickly scuttle out of the lab in search of a new sleeping place.

Meanwhile, in the dojo, Leo had already been meditating for at least an hour. He wasn't one to brag about his obedience and dedication to training, he just liked to get some time to himself before his brothers woke up. His ninja senses alerted him to movement near the door to the dojo, and he peeked an eye open, seeing Bear sniffing around the door frame.

At first, Leo contemplated getting up to get the pup before he wandered off, but decided to wait and see what would happen if he remained still. When he noticed the turtle in the center of the room, Bear froze up in a stance that looked like he was ready to bolt, but then began to tentatively approach with slow paw steps, eyeing the turtle nervously.

This green creature was different from the others. While it didn't interact with him as often as the others, Bear knew that this blue faced one was very gentle and patient. He slowly began to feel safe with this one.

It took half an hour, but eventually the puppy was sniffing Leo's crossed legs. Leo now had both eyes open, meditating momentarily forgotten, but he remained silent and smiled ever so slightly as Bear's big brown eyes looked up at him with a nervous hopefulness, just before the pup cautiously crawled into his lab and curled into a snug ball.

Leo smiled a bit more, and gently brought his hand to rest on the pup's back, mentally noting that the pup was not shaking. "Good boy, Bear." He spoke softly, barely even a whisper, for fear of scaring the puppy away. Giving yet another pleasant surprise to the eldest turtle brother, Bear's tiny floof of a tail gently thumped against his leg, eyes staring up at him with a nervous curiosity that was softly changing to a more gentle look.

A look of trust.

Later that morning, after Donnie had awoken to find Bear gone, he, Mikey, and Raph had begun searching the lair for the pup. At one such point, Raph looked into the dojo, quickly freezing as to avoid disturbing his meditating brother and the sleeping puppy in his lap. Smiling, he backed out and went back to his other brothers.

"Raph! Didya find him?!" Mikey ran up, panicked.

Raph smiled. "He's fine. He's sleeping with Leo."

At the looks on his brothers' faces Raph gave a short laugh, looking back at the dojo. "I know. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it."

"Th-this is a big step! I mean, with everything that's happened to Bear….A-and if he's learning to trust us.." Donnie's face was almost split with a grin, almost unable to contain himself.

"Dudesdudesdudesdudes! Does this mean we can start teaching Bear tricks?!" Mikey excitedly squeaked out, just too happy to even speak.

Donnie looked to the dojo, smiling. "Seems like that could be pretty likely real soon, if this continues going as well as it seems to be."

 **{*}**

 **Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out!**

 **FYI, I highly recommend researching the breed. Leonbergers are such majestic dogs! :D**

 **Obligatory disclaimer, as many people need to know this:** **if you want a particular dog breed, ALWAYS do your research on it** **. Leonbergers are lovely dogs, but are very large and very very hairy. XD**

 **TMNT 2012 © Nickelodeon**

 **Bear, story/idea © KaraTheFangirl**


End file.
